Foreflight releases big update, new Stratus announced

April 9, 2013

ByDave Hirschman

Pilots can get subscription-free weather and traffic and make iPhones act as standby attitude indicators with the second-generation Stratus ADS-B receiver from Sporty’s Pilot Shop, the company announced.

Stratus, which formerly offered subscription-free weather via ForeFlight, now offers additional capabilities in a new unit unveiled at the Sun ’n Fun International Fly-In & Expo at Lakeland, Fla.

“Stratus has been tremendously successful and practically invented a product category,” says Sporty’s Vice President John Zimmerman. “Now, just 12 months later, the new Stratus raises the bar even higher.”

Stratus features an advanced AHRS that aligns itself automatically before each flight. AHRS information is displayed on a free Stratus Horizon app. It shows a large attitude indicator that is updated 10 times per second as well as GPS-derived groundspeed, track, and altitude, and vertical speed.

“Keep your iPad on ForeFlight for weather and moving map; mount your iPhone in the window and run Stratus Horizon for a great backup,” says Zimmerman.

Dual band traffic is displayed in ForeFlight Mobile, and can be overlaid on a variety of maps, including sectionals, IFR en route charts, and terrain. Targets are shown in a data block that displays each aircraft’s relative altitude, climb or descent trend, tail number, and direction of flight.

“We think this is the best traffic display available for iPad,” says Tyson Weihs, ForeFlight co-founder and CEO.

Even though the new Stratus has more capability, it comes in a smaller box with better GPS performance, ADS-B reception, and 8-hour battery life. Stratus is totally wireless and operates with just one button and virtually no setup. It’s also able to tolerate higher cockpit temperatures.

The new Stratus has a retail price of $899 and deliveries will begin this month. The price for the original Stratus has been reduced to $699, and it now shows single-band ADS-B traffic.